With the resources they have, and these unique findings AI has helped them discover, they should now be in the ideal position to rapidly correct this deficiency in their own bootloader, so that nobody will ever need to use Grub again.
With this level of expertise, now enhanced by AI, and so much effort already behind them so far, it shouldn't take much to push this over the finish line, provided they have an effective enough organization when it comes to enhancing the security of PC users overall. After all, they don't even have to worry about addressing Macs.
I know the engineers are brilliant enough by far, and with nothing holding them back, we should be able to expect a minor revision of of the NT bootloader like this to be arriving any day now.
According to what I see in the article, this would be one of the most timely & useful security patches to show up on Windows Update, I hope they don't drop the ball on this one.
Patch Tuesday is next week but they seem so close they could probably push this critical correction out before that, so watch for it :)
That's why we got secure boot and why windows absolutely clobbers any other bootloaders during install, updates, and random points in between. It's why we have WSL.
I'll bet good money that Microsoft never even considers what you propose. It's antithetical to the mission of "lock all possible users into ad revinue streams". Microsoft won't get their windows ad impressions if they allow you to use a different OS on the hardware you own.
Are you wanting bootmgr.efi to learn how to read arbitrary Linux filesystems, bootloader configurations, and EFISTUB? Why?
Windows supports setting a one time boot using a UEFI BootNext NVRAM variable, directly boots shim.efi, doesn't involve bootmgr.efi
I mean, I replaced Grub with systemd-boot awhile back...
Gee, how clever and thoughtful.
When does Microsoft open their source for searching vulnerabilities?
The creator of SystemD recommends systemd-boot? Seems legit and unbiased.
...and what systemd-boot is? A UEFI only boot menu which gets its data from UEFI only.
I mean comparing two different things and claiming the more featured one too big is mental gymnastics to put it politely.
GRUB having vulnerabilities is not surprising, esp. when the thing is written at an age where computers were completely different things, programming and requirements wise, but insinuating that systemd-boot is the ultimate replacement is, eh, a bit underhanded. Esp. when it comes from Lennart, whose systemd is too big and encompassing for an init system.
It's the pot calling the kettle black, heh.
And btw, not that long ago it was released by researchers than more than 200 platforms from diverse but main laptops and servers manufacturers were still using leaked keys for signing their boot loaders...
Is Apple a joke because they sign the root of trust for their devices? Someone has to be the root authority. Honestly I trust MS more than I do Google or VerisignDigicert. They are the least likely to intentionally break things.
The reason MS controls the root and not Red Hat etc. is because the Linux camp spent years arguing back and forth about exactly how much they hate secure boot - like an HOA arguing over paint colors - instead of presenting solutions.
> So anyone with they certificate key can do whatever they want.
this is literally how PKI works
Somehow I think MS put a little more thought into their PKI design than whatever you're trying to convey here. What were the other options? Store it on a Yubikey sewn into rms's beard?
People are quick to dismiss secure boot simply because they refuse to understand it.
Not like there's any question.
Overwhelmingly more so than for "security" purposes.
Any lesser understanding of Microsoft SecureBoot, well, I understand.
I've seen that kind of that kind of refusal before.
No-one has to be, and it certainly doesn't need to be anyone but the owner of the machine.
Technically the web should work with self-signed certificates. But that is likewise impractical.
But in the case of secure boot, this is worse, because Microsoft is just a "software" editor. But its root certificate and probably a few random others are distributed in countless of devices produced by manufacturers unrelated to them, but also, a few number of software distributors will also have subkeys to be able to sign their os/software. All of that, with zero transparency.
And in the end, if I buy a Lenovo laptop, to have Linux OS running on it, there is no reason and no trust to have my OS be signed by Microsoft, that has the key to run whatever they want on my laptop. Think about it and you will see that it makes no sense at all, if you don't trust Microsoft for your OS, to have to trust them for ensuring a secure boot...
Then manually sign your bootloader.
This feature is available at least in my Gigabyte mainboard, but is not particularly easy to use, which is why bootloaders come pre-signed with a known root of trust. There's nothing stopping the installer from generating the root of trust on the fly, except for the default settings in many machines.
Can also preload measurements for hardware while at it so that nobody swaps a PCIe device for an evil twin.
I understand some computers may not support this as well, so YMMV.
Odd. I wonder if the article was written by AI.
Makes me trust open source operating systems more!
but if they sent the AI through all that ancient code and that's all they found it's not a good advertisement
AI is in he title, but the content is not entirely revolving around it.